Friday, December 22, 2006

Tragedy Averted

Since I know you were all worried, I will let you know that Mayor Street's efforts to keep Thomas Eakins' The Gross Clinic in Philadelphia have been successful. In a nearly unprecedented fit of focus, Street led an effort to raise the $68 million needed to keep the giant 1876 painting in the city.

The big donors were, predictably, Leonore Annenberg (rich lady), Joe Neubauer (Aramark), Gerry Lenfest (Suburban Cable) and the Pew Foundation. They were apparently horrified that the Eakins 'masterwork' was going to be boxed up and shipped off to Arkansas after being sold to those nasty Wal-Mart people. It's good to know where all the exorbitant stadium food money and cable fees are going.

It should be noted that the painting has been gathering dust in a Thomas Jefferson University dorm for about 40 years, basically unnoticed by darn near everyone. In this Inquirer article, Mayor Street announced that he was sending legislation to City Council that will register all important art in the city so that this kind of thing can't happen again. Hopefully they do a better job registering and tracking the art than they do the kids under the supervision of the Department of Human Services.

Wouldn't it be nice if the mayor and all these rich folks were as worried about crime and education in the city?Other News

The Flyerslost again. Poor Tim Panaccio had to go to Montreal to watch.